Stuck in Captivity
by G. Sun
Summary: Mia wakes up in a strange place with someone pretty strange making sure she stays there. Her heart is still set on getting her best friend Seth back from the Darkness but how long will that last? Speaking of Seth, he's going through a struggle too as he grapples with submitting to the Darkness and keeping the Light inside him. Read after THE DREADED CLASH
1. Chapter 1

**Kidnapped Mia, oh whatever will happen next for our young heroine?**

What happened to me? What am I doing here? How did I get here-where's Seth? "Seth? Are you here? Seth?" My bo staff, where is it? When I try to run around the cell, my pelvis throbs and I drop to the cold floor. That's right, Seth hit me there, it hurts so much. I hear a door open and I immediately lay down and face the back wall. "…been resting for a while. Are you sure you didn't beat her up?" asks a woman whose voice I fail to recognize. The other person's voice, I know very well. "I found her like that."

"Perhaps she got into a scuffle with someone before you came. Lucky you, huh? She hasn't stirred much, she had better not be dead."

"I'm sorry about that other Chaos Emerald Professor-"

"No matter, three Chaos Emeralds is more than enough to power up the machine, don't worry! Aah, what would I do without you?" she asks fondly. "You come get me when she wakes up and we'll start testing." Her heels clacking against the floor echoes throughout the spacious cell and eventually I don't hear them. She knew me but I don't even recognize her voice, who was she? Everything's still so fuzzy-wait a minute, did I lose against Seth, is that why I'm here? I still have to bring him back, save him from the Darkness manipulating him to hate me, there's so much I have to do.

"I know you're awake," points out Don stolidly. I sit up and twist my body towards him. He must have been the one who brought me here but why? I got him the Chaos Emeralds and helped him out as best I could and I never told anyone about what happened to his poor friend Angelica, what reason does he have to keep me here? "Welcome to your prison."

"Don-wha? What happened to me?" I ask him slowly, climbing to my feet and almost tripping when I try to slump against the wall. My prison? What did I do now that made him put me in this huge cell? His reply puts butterflies in my stomach, "That's what I want to know, you were found in the middle of Redflower Park passed out."

"And you didn't see anyone else?"

"Nobody but you half-dead on the ground."

"Seth," I say to myself faintly, caressing the cut on my cheek. Don must have heard me because he lets out an annoyed grunt mixed with a snort. "You're still with that guy? How has he been since the last time I almost destroyed him?" asks Don with a sadistic chuckle. I quickly turn away to hide my burning face, getting the feeling Don would see it and laugh at me for still reaching out to him. I deserved to get laughed at, Seth nearly killed me and left me for dead, is that someone worth saving? _Of course it is_, he's still my best friend from Moonlight Town deep down in there, he's just confused and needs me to guide him in the right direction. I'm the light in his darkness, I'm supposed save him, not beat him up with my stick. "I can't be here, I have to go and save my friend," I say defiantly as I head towards the bars. "Please let me out."

"You mean Seth, the one who put you in that gruesome state? You consider someone like him to be your friend?"

"Of course, he needs me-"

"He has a funny way of showing you the same dedication."

"He's going through a lot right now, you don't know him the way I do." That makes Don face me, his face stern almost like how Seth's face looks when he's thinking really hard about something. I really miss him. "That's why I have to leave." I sneakily reach for my bo staff in my carry bag and grab nothing but air. "Where's my bo staff?" I urgently ask, storming around the very spacious cell and letting out loud, pained groans. "What happened to it?" I check the carry bag again but feel nothing.

"Whatever you're going on about, I didn't see." A piece of my heart shatters, that staff was so important to me. The bo staff was a gift from Master Shade and the evidence of my hard work training with him and Master Wisp. It contains the blood, sweat, and tears that fell on it when I trained hard, when I fought against Deidra, and when I cried about Seth and it's a constant reminder that he's coming for me. Would he still be coming after me after seeing how feeble I am? I lean on the wall and cover my eyes with my arm shamefully. Please let my staff come back to me, I need it so much. After taking in deep gulps and breaths, I can speak without bursting into tears. "Why am I here?" I ask slowly with a cracking voice. "Why did you bring me here?"

"The Professor wants to run some tests on you," he says as if it's no big deal. I dig my head deeper into my arm. "She needs you alive and healthy, the opposite of the state Seth put you in."

"Then I can leave?" I snivel pathetically.

"No we need you here until-"

"Until what?" I take my head from my arm and stagger towards Don, catching myself with the bars. "Until what?" He heads for the door on the far right, disregarding my question and the sliding door opens.

"Professor, she's awake," announces Don. Then a loud crash and clattering of objects follow and the woman's clacking high heels approach the door. It slide opens for her automatically and she giddily jogs in her heels to the cell, making weird, excited noises. "So this is the Mia I've heard so much about, Don raise the bars please," the chestnut haired woman in a lab coat grins at me. "Oh you don't look good, are you feeling sick?"

"Noo," I answer weakly while with the push of a button the bars are raised with a mechanical, droning noise. "I'm okay except for over here," I rub my pelvis area, invoking more pain from where Seth hit me. When I step down from the cell, I lose my footing and fall to the much colder floor. "Oh jeez, come on get up," she helps me get up as Don watches me struggle indifferently. How did he ever become friends with Angelica again? The woman in the lab coat wraps her arm around my waist and that's when I notice how tall she is-five feet and ten inches or more-towering over me. "Dr. Mulierovum has you, it's ok Mia."

"Dr. Muly-um, Mula-"

"Just call me Professor or Doctor, you're choice."

"Professor."

Don opens the door for the both of us by tapping on a few buttons by the door and I survey the lab. It looks just like the kind laboratory I expected except it's equipped with more machinery than an old-fashioned lab would have. There are robotic arms nailed to the wall and tons and tons of blueprints covering the floor. Professor turns pink seeing her workspace, her arm still tight around me. "Oh dear God, I'm sorry you have to see this mess. Hang on to me so you don't slip." But isn't she the one in high heels? She punctures holes in some of the papers scattered on the floor and there's the faint smell of coffee when I pass her unreasonably long, unkempt desk. "Ok Don, take her into the testing space."

"Yes Professor." When she lets me go, I almost stumble and slip into Don's grasp but I stop myself. Right now I can't have him hold me, not after what he said about Seth. "I'll be fine Don, thank you," I say gratefully despite aching in my lower regions. He gestures towards a sliding door and it automatically opens for me. I step in, seeing a giant orb in a white and grey tiled-room. "Step into the orb," orders Professor from corner speakers. I spot a large tinted screen which is probably where Don and the Professor are watching me. This is scary, I don't like knowing that there are people watching me but I have no way of seeing them. But I do as she says and climb into the glassy sphere. "Brace yourself Mia."

J.G.P.


	2. Chapter 2

Everyone's eyes are on me-they're all waiting for my excuses and I can't think of any. It's as if someone had taken over me in the park, I wasn't myself for five precious minutes, and I didn't know what I wanted to do. If I had gotten it over with than the room would be filled with proud faces instead of disappointed expressions. I thought that I've matured from Moonlight Town, were all the trials that I got put through for nothing? "What?" I snap when I pick my head from the table. Xevia, sitting across from me, worriedly watches me. As usual, Gineam remains silent-nobody knows what he's thinking under that mask but I'm sure he's disappointed in me too. "What's your problem?"

"We're worried about you Seth," says Xevia sweetly.

"Well don't be! I don't need anyone's pity," I shout, startling her. She's a tough girl and won't just stop talking the way Mia would.

"We're not giving you pity, we just want to know what happened out there-!"

"I'll tell you what happened out there, I choked okay? I beat her and when the time came to kill her, I froze! That's what everyone in here wants to hear right? _I'm not the prodigy Master makes me out to be and I'm damn sure I won't ever be."_ I stand up in an angry huff and try to storm out of the meeting room but I bump into Master.

"Seth I can hear you yelling from downstairs, I don't tolerate-"

"Fuck off," I push past his long robe, hearing Xevia loudly gasp at my swear. I don't care, I don't care anymore, I don't care about her, I don't care about Nate rotting away or Gineam who never talks, or Master and what any of them have to say to me. What do I care about anymore? "Seth you stop right there, how dare you talk to me like that," scolds Master. "Come downstairs." Disregarding him, I go to my room and slam the door. When I look towards my bed, there's Master waiting for me. In a black flash, his hands are around my throat, his claws scratching my skin. He releases me but the sensation of him choking me is still strangling me as I levitate above the floor. His pupils are at their normal size which means he's not angry. "How does it feel? To have your life being crushed like an ant hm? Tell me, Pupil." He called me _pupil_, he never calls me pupil. It was only in the beginning he called us that-when we were brand new to all this Darkness. "I-can't-nngh-"

"Don't you ever try speaking to me like that again. You're no better than anyone else in here so do not act like it," with the twist of his hands, my heart does a back flip.

"Aaaaaaagh," his telepathic hold on my throat cuts my howl short, everything is turning yellow. By Master's sides are two Heartless hungrily ogling me. Is he really going to let me die this way? Kill me now and dispose of my heart to his minions? "Aaaack-aack-uck, uck-no."

"You think you can disrespect me in front of my other students do you?" he extends his hand to me and beckons me forward. I drift over to him, almost ready to cry at this moment but if I do that I'll give him the satisfaction. I'm ready to black out any moment, I just want him to get this over with. "You think you can…"

A tunnel is closing around me, I'm losing my hearing, Master's mouth is still moving though. It makes me wonder how long it took for him to control the Darkness, to enslave the Darkness. I thought that's what I really wanted-why did I listen to him at Moonlight Town? I should have forgotten everything he told me that fateful night. It would've saved me so much grief, heartache, and pain. As my body starts to shut down, an image of Mia in the fetal position flashes, gazing at me in horror. _Are we still friends? _The statement has a mind of its own, continuing to haunt me in my darkness. _Are we still friends? _I laughed at it before because that was such a Mia question but now that I'm dead, nothing is funny. Why was the question so important to her? She should know we're not friends anymore. "But you didn't answer me," says Mia from the darkness, taking form by shaping herself from a piece of the colorless void. "You never gave me a direct answer Seth. Tell me how you feel."

"I don't know Mia, I honestly don't. One moment I'm out to kill you and another moment, I want to-to-"

"Do you wanna know what I think?"

"No Mia, just stop."

"You're afraid that what I'm going to say is right. I think that you still care for me, that's why you couldn't kill me when the time came," patronizes Mia. "That Seth from Moonlight Town is still residing within you."

"Noo!" What kind of hell is this? Is this my punishment for everything I've done? "I hate you! I hate you for holding me back, stop talking to me." But the voice persists, "You don't mean that, you don't."

"You know damn well I do! I'll never see you more than an enemy. Darkness is my only friend- Mia while you stay in the Light, I'll be in the Dark."

"_In any darkness, you become my light," _she repeats the statement I told her when we were on Moonlight Beach to my horror. "Have you forgotten that? Of course not, you wouldn't forget something like that. It means nothing to you now, doesn't it?"

"_Kill yourself!" _The figurative Mia morosely stares at me as she fades back into the darkness. It morphs into Xevia's mud-colored eyes. She looks scared and frightened as her tears are falling onto me. I'm too shocked to say anything to her, my mouth melted off my face. Am I still dead?

* * *

I blacked out after Professor's test and now I'm sleeping until the pain traveling through my nerves can no longer be suppressed by sleep. Turning on my side, I wake up in the cell, the reinforced bars back in place. I'm grateful that the lights are always on but right now staring into the light makes me feel sick. When I open to my mouth to breathe, I feel my heart deflate as my groans echo in the cell. On my side, I try pushing myself up but my arms give up and I hit the floor again. "I can't-"

How does Seth has the strength to get up every morning? If this happened to him he'd bounce back up like it's no big deal but I can't since I'm a good-for-nothing kid. Seth beat me and if given the chance, he would have killed me, I got lucky Don came to kidnap me. I open my eyes again, feeling a bit stronger than earlier. I dreamed the same dream, from who knows how long ago, about a man who killed himself so that I could move again but before I got to talk to him he died. Who knows how long I've been out, it's not like there's a window here, time is a lost concept in here. I don't even know what day it is-ow, ow, my breasts feel so tender. When I manage to sit myself up, I spot a triangular-cut sandwich and a glass of milk. I crawl towards it gradually, my appetite suddenly raging at the sight of the meager sandwich. Greedily I snatch one half of it and finish it in two bites. The moist bread is enough to give me more strength; I take the other half and eat it without tasting it. I don't even know what was in it, for all I know it could have been a salami sandwich. While drinking the milk too quickly, I cough some out, spilling a little of milk down my chin like a baby. I wipe the milk off my chin and cough some more until I revert back to my weak, frail self, and chug down the rest of the milk. I feel like so helpless like the way I was so many years ago after my parents died. There was almost nothing I could for myself and I had to learn how adapt to the cruel world without them. I sigh while getting on my feet and moving towards the wall and I catch Don leaning against the bars not facing me. "When can I leave?" I ask him, surprised at how strong my voice comes out.

"You're not," says Don apathetically. "That's not the only test."

"Why am I being tested? What did I do wrong?"

"I don't have to answer to you," he says sourly.

"I have a right to know-how long am I going to be in here?" I change the question, knowing how dodgy Don can be about certain questions. "There's nothing wrong with your pelvis," he puts emphasis on pelvis to imply that I'm faking pain there. So why does it hurt so much? "You're in a hurry to return back to your best friend who made half of your face bleed right?" Before I can ask what he's talking about, I pat my cheek, feeling the cut Seth made. "Like I said earlier, the Professor needs you alive and well, Seth would ruin that, wouldn't he?"

Taken aback by his sharp comment, I turn away from my captor, letting out a heavy sigh as the statement drives a hole inside me. "Seth wouldn't trap me here against my will, he would never do that! I'm such an idiot for having sympathy for you because you don't deserve any of it! You're ruthless and despicable to be around, any friend you've ever had is definitely _made up_ because there's no way someone would spend time with a _heartless_ man like you. You're no better than a Heartless," is what I want to scream at him. Heavy silence hangs thick in the cell as I silently slump against the wall and caress the cut on my cheek.

J.G.P.

**You can cut the tension with a knife, wooo. I'll leave you with that cliffhanger right there, I hope you liked it.**


End file.
